Russian, Italian football federations set to sign cooperation agreement

Russian, Italian football federations set to sign cooperation agreement

Moscow, Oct 18 (IANS) The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and the Russian Football Union (RFU) are set to sign a co-operation agreement here on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Italian national football team has said.

The spokesman said FIGC President Carlo Tavecchio was scheduled to arrive in the Russian capital on Wednesday, hold a bilateral meeting with RFU President Vitaly Mutko and eventually sign the cooperation agreement, reports Tass.

Asked whether the agreement would stipulate a possible friendly match between the two national football team the spokesman said one should wait until Wednesday adding that the mooted agreement first of all stipulated the technical cooperation between the two national football federations as well as the exchange of experience.

The national teams around the globe are currently in the qualifying stage battling for the place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, while Russia as the host nation has been already guaranteed the birth in the world’s main quadrennial football event.

Therefore, the Russian national team is playing friendly football matches in the run-up to the much anticipated FIFA World Cup and last Sunday’s game against Costa Rica was its third friendly encounter over the past two months.

Besides October 9 match, Russia is also scheduled to play two more friendly games before December, which are against Qatar on November 10 in Doha and Romania on November 15 in Chechnya’s Grozny.

The Russia football squad played two friendly matches in early September – against Turkey (0-0) and then versus Ghana (1-0).

Last Friday RFU President Mutko, who also holds the post of the Russian sports minister, announced that the country’s national football squad had been scheduled to play a total of 10 friendly matches in 2017.